Instead of cutting down trees, re-use glass bottles to form the structure of your home. Tom Kelly, a miner in treeless Rhyolite, Nevada, had this idea back in 1906. More than a century later, Rhyolite’s a ghost town—and Tom’s weird amalgam of 50,000 glass bottles is one of the few buildings still standing.
23 Stunning Glass Bottle Walls Around the World
1) Art Center In Texas
An arts center in Deep Ellum, Texas. The picture was found on Vitreosity without the story of its origin.
2) Shining Glass Bottle Wall
You can see how the bottom of the bottles affect the shape the light creates in the wall.
3) Earthship House
An Earthship Home. Note tires and cans as well.
Brighton Earthship
4) Anna’s Bottle Home
Anna’s bottle house in Tucson, Arizona. Trip Advisor includes some descriptions by people who have stayed at this B&B.
5) Glass Bottle Wall in New Mexico
You can see how the designer made sections without bottles, allowing unfiltered light to pass through.
6) Taos EarthShip House
In Taos, another Earthship. Bright light, but private. From New Mexico, you can rent one of these homes. More information is on their site.
7) Kawakawa Bathroom
Kawakawa, New Zealand men’s public toilet close up. Designed by Austrian artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Originally found at krepcio.com/vitreosity/archives/001187.html
Kawakawa, New Zealand men’s public toilet from the outside.
8) Assorted Glass Bottle Wall
Again in New Zealand: Carlucci Land, Happy Valley. Photo taken by Jim Henderson, Flickr.
9) Glass Bottle Chapel
The Bottle Chapel at Airlie Gardens, North Carolina, a tribute to Minnie Evans.
Close up at Airlie Gardens. Their website says that 4,000 bottles were used to create this masterpiece.
The sides of the chapel. Airlie Gardens Foundation has more information and videos on their site.
10) Market Hall
Bottle Wall, Market Hall Altenrhein Switzerland. Designed by Austrian artist and Friedensreich Hundertwasser.
Hundertwasser bottle wall picture by eloisavh on Flickr.
11) Artist’s Glass Bottle Studio
Here’s an eclectic room. An artist’s studio in New Zealand.
Same New Zealand art studio. Looks more secure when you plaster in the bottlenecks.
12) Bottle House On Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island Bottle House. Photo from Keith Watson on Flickr. According to Kieth, the house had originally fallen apart, leading to its reconstruction.
13) Irish Glass Bottle Wall
Glass wall Biotecture, Ireland. This photo can be seen on Voila.bz.
14) Wat Lan Kuat
Walkway at Wat Lan Kuat, Thai for “The Temple of One Million Bottles.”
Wat Lan Kuat (One Million Bottle Temple) in Khn Han, Eastern Thailand. Here’s a video on this temple in Thailand.
15) Rhyolite Glass House
Tom Kelly’s Bottle House Rhyolite, Nevada, built in 1906. This amazing home was restored later, as stated by What About The Plastic Animals?
16) Bottle Wall From Bandal, India
Light radiates from this glass bottle structure. The green and white bottles create a stunning contrast.
17) Wall Of Metal And Glass
EarthShip Photo: Earthship Kristen, Flickr. You can only imagine what the inside of this Earthship must look like!
18) Cordwood Wall
A wall made of cordwood and bottles. The glass bottles create a beautiful glow around the window. This photo can be found on Vitreosity. Originally found at krepcio.com/vitreosity/archives/cat_bottle_walls.html
19) Home From Bariloche, Patagonia
Manuel Rapoport has built a house in Bariloche, Patagonia, Argentina with 100% recycled ingredients. Tin cans for roofing and siding and merged whiskey bottles as windows. Go to www.designopatagonia.com for more information.
20) Glowing Bottle House
Duke’s bottle house in Australia. This home’s glowing red hue is spectacular, looking like a wall of glowing embers. Originally found at krepcio.com/vitreosity/archives/cat_bottle_walls.html
21) Glass Bottle Cave
Charlie Stagg’s bottle cave creation — photo by Lawrence Harris. He has done a wonderful job making the columns look like they’re climbing up the wall. Photo originally found at krepcio.com/vitreosity/archives/cat_bottle_walls.html
22) Tinker Town
Tinker town, New Mexico. The small town hosts a large number of creations by Ross Ward. Vitreosity has more information about this fantastic place on their site. Originally found at krepcio.com/vitreosity/archives/cat_bottle_walls.html
23) Doors From Beer
Beer Bottle Doors. Girl Vs. Beer features these cool doors on their site, along with other beer bottle creations that may inspire you.
Glass Bottle Home Decor
1868 Green Honey Bottles Wall Decor, handmade by Pineknobs and Crickets in Grand Haven, Michigan.
Whiskey Bottle Clock, handmade from melted glass by Boni’s Glass Art in Rehovot, Israel. Boni melts the glass in her home glass kiln and makes the clocks with her granddaughter.
Wine Bottle Chandelier, made from upcycled wine bottles by Glow 828 in Black Mountain, North Carolina.
The Heineken WOBO (world bottle), an interlocking beer bottle. Mr. Heineken was a green thinker and designed bottle bricks so his beer bottles could be re-used. But the rest of the company wouldn’t go for it.
Glass bottle chair, just don’t try to use it to open beer.
And to go in your new bottle home, a beer bottle chandelier.
Better yet, this more stylish wine bottle chandelier. Found on Hooked On Houses, you can go to their site for more information.
God these are beautiful- it’s something I would have included had I had a chance to build that house- I have always loved those things that went into old cellars, where the glass has usually morphed purple. Know what I’m talking about?
And that chair!
Stunning! Will certainly use bottles in my future projects. Thank you for the lovely green inspirations.
I really enjoyed looking at these most beautiful photos on this website. Keep up the good work. It is fabulous!
Fantastic stuff. I came across the Bottle Chapel at Airlie Gardens, North Carolina, a tribute to Minnie Evans, not long ago in the context of a translation about Outsider Artists. Minnie Evans was the gatekeeper of Airlie Gardens from 1949 to 1974, and is considered to be one of America’s most important visionary artists. Born in Long Creek, N.C. in 1892, Minnie’s original name was Minnie Eva Jones (no relationship to Pembroke Jones). In 1935, following a vision, Minnie Evans began to draw. Her own take on color, mysticism, and symmetry made her art unique. Minnie died in 1987 at the age of 95. The Minnie Evans Sculpture Garden and Bottle Chapel is stop nine of the garden tour, if you ever go there. The chapel was constructed by local artists as a tribute to Minnie’s life and talent. See also airliegardens DOT org
Are there any instructions on how to do this? I’d really love to try it! The technique would make an awesome garden wall.
Absolutely amazing, I really love them, I want one of my own!
Am captivated by the beauty of light, bottle collecting and building. These are beautiful. Thank~you so much for the inspiration ~
very cool!!!
so lovely, the light and colours make for changing moods throughout the day and the weather. really inspirational that people take the time to do this, rather than just throw up concrete blocks or bricks, Fabulous
great pictures, can u give me some prices per sq mtre would be great, for different shapes and designs, look forward to hearing from u,
WOW!! Thank you… very inspiring, completely amazing, totally doable and affordable, abundant solutions! Beautiful!!!
🙂
WAYYYYY COOL!! It almost inspires me to get creative!!
Thank you so much! These are beautiful and inspirig. It has me thinking about what I might be able to create on my own land.
HOW DO THEY CONSTRUCT THESE WALLS? DO THEY POOR THE CEMENT AROUND THE BOTTLES ON A FLAT SURFACE AND THEN STAND THE COMPLETED WALL UP? CUSTOME FORMS? MY WIFE WANTS ME TO BUILD ONE WITH ALL OUR RECYCLED BOTTLES AND I DONT WANT TO POUR IT THEN HAVE IT CRUMBLE ON ME. JUST TRYING TO NOT BE WASTEFUL. ANY INFO WOULD HELP, THANKS -DANIEL
Here are two links that might be helpful.
http://www.naturalbuild.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/building-an-earthship/
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_wall
I envy you the project. Sounds like great fun!
Absolutly loved all of the bottle-wall examples….Is there a how to build a bottle wall book or instructions available. What bottle position is best for clean insulating?! If jars are used, (jelly, peanut-butter) should the caps be put on or left open. How does this effect the strength?
Thank you, Patie
Hi Patie,
I think it depends on the purpose of the wall…is insulation important where you are…or do you merely desire an aesthetic wall? If you are going to leave the bottles empty inside then I do not know if the bottles can support much weight above. Will the jar tops be exposed to the elements where they can rust? The architect Michael Reynolds has written 2 volumes of ‘Earthship: How to Build Your Own’ he covers glass walls. Also look at http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_wall and http://www.naturalbuild.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/building-an-earthship/
Have fun!
Best, Keiren
gorgeous inspiration! i adore it!
It is so interesting and so inspiring to see .. what you can do everything with our – garbage —
I thank you for the
Congrats!
Simple and Amazing,gives me inspiration. Do these conform with some kinds of building codes? Thanks so much!
Incredible and Beautiful
I love this! The creativity to re-use rather than refuge is awesome. Let’s ALL do this!
While not on the same scale as any of these, here is a tower of blue bottles I continue to add to. I hope this will eventually reach about 8′ tall. https://www.flickr.com/photos/thatcar/4541596689/
Hi Greg, Thanks for sharing that picture. The blue bottles look beautiful at night! Love that glass ornament on top of the structure! Plus, curious about your mirrored bathtub as well. Keep up the brilliant work!
This is fantastic! I love it. I want to learn how to do it. Suzie is an old friend of mine and she is so talented.
The wiki bottle wall site is helpfull however, are there any construction details anywhere that give more of a visual guid on building walls or benches with glass bottles in them?
How do you build a glass bottle wall? What materials do you need?
very very cool! I’m inspired, and will perhaps rethink my next composter toilet at Wattle Hollow, in Arkansas, to include more bottle art, along with cob walls.
WOW !
What GR8 Ideas !
Just loVe Them All….
Thx 4 Sharing
Beautiful and inspiring!
The creations on here are absolutely stunning, I’ve been cluttering up my small back patio with empty bottles intending to use them in a building project somewhere, somehow, but now am about to have a wetroom wall limeplastered and BINGO! Need to get drinking again!!
am wanting to build a partial wall for a hot tub enclosure and wanted to ask what kind of concrete or mortor is used or if there are any instructions on how to build a wall
Hi there Amy,
Thanks for writing. There is a wiki page on glass bottle walls with a bit of instruction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_wall
I have yet to make one – or to have worked with cement ever! So, I am sorry to say I am lacking in knowledge to give any advice! Do hope you get to build your wall and it turns out great though!
Best, Keiren
isn’t it amazing the brilliance GOD gives us to use each and every way. truly simplistic yet …
breath taking….just amazing
Fascinating. Have a look on Google at the Owl House in New Bethesda ~ South Africa.
Thank you for sharing this site- its absolutely amazing. We are building an outdoor shower on our ecostead in hawaii and this was perfect inspiration.
This is what I have wanted to do in my shed for years. As soon as the weather gets warm enough I am going to remove my boring window and install a bottle window. The pictures are great. Thanks
Too freaking awesome, I have seen a few bottle walls but nothing like this. LOVE IT! I am an artist who works with recycled materials and found these works just plain fascinating. Thanks!
https://trash2-treasure.blogspot.com/
It very impressive and attractive.
I really love how the glass looks in all of the things made, I can see this in so many of my ideas for the home I would love to help build with my boyfriend. The colors and the way it can help heat up places, very beautiful. All those bottles we have in drinks and other can be turned into art in the yard. Makes me want to plan many garden spots!
cooleo men
We did test panels and set them out on the deck over winter in NW PA, to see if they would freeze and break, and how much mortar was needed. This year we plan to build our dream wall, in a mosaic of water and sky and palm tree, with the necks facing out. I saw a wall a long time ago, with morning glories growing around the exposed necks, and it was fabulous. Thanks for the inspiration.
these are amazing
Hi, I have read that some people leave the bottle tops open on outdoor walls. If you do that, is there a way to stop the moquitoes from breeding inside the bottles?
I am wondering when building a glass bottle wall with concrete and bottles will not be seen, is it necessary to remove the labels? I am building a retaining wall so the wall will be subject to some water seepage. Labels, I would think, would impede the gluing process of the mortar – what do you think? Remove the labels from the 3000 bottles or not necessary?
I would think if the bottles are mostly submerged in the mud/cement, there would still be plenty of bottle to grip, so no need to remove the labels.
But, looking at all the pictures above, I see not one label in any of the houses built with bottles! For aesthetic reasons I would remove them. (Soaking in tubs of water?) But if they are going to be submerged in cement, I would not go through all that effort. If I find out anymore I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for writing.
As to mosquitoes – I am against all nasty chemicals, and keeping a whole building saturated with essential oils sound expensive. I am stumped!
Have any of you seen or heard about the new Amazing Oil Bottle House at Disney’s California Adventure? It is in the queue for the new Cars Land ride Radiator Springs Racers, and this is the first time I had ever seen one of these before. It was so beautiful, I started doing research and happened upon this page. So glad to know there are ideas and instructions out there so we can maybe try a small-scale wall at our home!
Check out pictures here of the Disney queue here:
https://damouse.com/2012/06/13/step-inside-radiator-springs-at-cars-land-in-disney-california-adventure-part-8/
I saw a beautiful use of bottles in a wall on one of those home improvement shows. The people put glass jars on the bottle opening end, then wrapped the whole thing in metal sheeting/flashing before casting in cement. They claimed the metal reflected more light into the house, and adding the jars on the other end eliminated the open ends and gave it a neater look. I’ve thought about cutting bottles in half and using the lower halves and/or jars, so both sides of a wall would show the bottoms, which I think are more atteractive.